


The Kyber's Song

by Bombus -Pascuorum (webslinger9_5am), webslinger9_5am



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game), The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Any and All OC's are minor characters I swear, Blood, Gen, Rated T for any potential swearing and Canon typical violence, Tags subject to change as needed, There WILL be torture later on, chapters containing torture will be marked in their summaries, characters will be tagged as they appear, there WILL be screaming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28085022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/webslinger9_5am/pseuds/Bombus%20-Pascuorum, https://archiveofourown.org/users/webslinger9_5am/pseuds/webslinger9_5am
Summary: In an attempt to make sure the ship is safe and spend what little time they have left, Din and Grogu stop by Mygeeto on their way to Tython instead of just heading right into the inner core. There, they meet Cal Kestis, an unnervingly friendly being in a galaxy where sweet smiles so often hide sharp teeth. Din doesn't trust him but the mechanic may be his only lead to the first covert he's seen outside of his own in decades and, frankly, Din's not ready to give up the kid just yet.The meeting changes nothing and everything.Through it all, the seeing stone calls.
Relationships: Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Din Djarin
Comments: 19
Kudos: 95





	1. The Calm

**Author's Note:**

> The author has many regrets, mainly bringing Mygeeto into things. And bothans.

**Albario Sector: Mygeeto**

Cal switched his screwdriver to his left hand so he could flex the fingers on his right and get blood flowing back to the frozen digits. Learning about a planet’s temperate zones from a star map was one thing, he found, but actually visiting was quite another. 

If he’d actually taken the time to consider how cold the planet could get, Cal was sure he wouldn’t have been nearly as excited for their reassignment to Mygeeto. 

He switched the tool back and tried not to focus on the irony of him finally being here now some twenty years later.

“Hey, Kestis. Dez said to come inside soon,” A gruff voice rumbled from somewhere to his left.

Cal glanced over his shoulder at the Bothan and responded with a muffled, “Sure thing, Boss,” from under his thick scarf. 

The Bothan understood him perfectly if his half amused glare was anything to go by.

It was sort of a running joke around the shop. What the joke  _ was _ , exactly had never actually been explained. And whether or not Boss was actually  _ in  _ on the joke was up for debate. 

Cal had never gotten his name, despite being introduced several months ago, and therefore played along.

“Don’t forget to seal the pipes,” The Bothan grumbled and turned his back on the dismantled overhead door panel Cal was working on, “There’s a storm brewing.”

Cal tugged his scarf down to call, “Okay, Boss!” after him.

The Bothan waved him off with a half hearted curse or two in Bothese and the few mechanics still outside chuckled.

Cal tugged his scarf back over a grin and returned to fixing the door pad. The controls had shorted out with the overhead half open and the colder months were just about to set in. He wanted to get it done before moving on.

He didn't have much time left on Mygeeto. Originally, the plan had been for him to run around for a few hours, make sure there weren't any stray imps trying to mine the kyber that could be found on the planet and then get back to the Mantis. 

The plan had, predictably, gone out the window the second he set foot on the planet. 

The Razor Crest hit another bout of turbulence with a shudder and Din cursed the idiots who thought that building a spaceport in the middle of a mountain range full of jagged peaks was a good idea.

Grogu let out a curious coo.

He’d come to Mygeeto for further repairs rather than heading straight for Tython. The Razor Crest had taken a lot of hits. He wanted to make sure it could handle a trip to the inner core.

It wasn’t ready.

“Dank Ferrik,” He hissed.

He felt more than saw Grogu look up at him.

“Don’t repeat that,” Din said- not that the kid could, “Hold on.”

The ship lurched to the side and Grogu let out a delighted squeal.

Din sighed. At least  _ some _ one was enjoying this.

The consol flashed a warning about power drain. 

Din sincerely hoped it wasn’t serious enough to keep them from landing in a repair bay.

“Razor Crest, this is repair bay 57. We are clear for landing.”

Din eyed the open ring of the walled landing pad wearily and got ready to compensate for the up draft such an enclosed space would cause. At least it wasn’t in one of the towers.

The ship wobbled but then a series of large vents along the walls opened and the Razor Crest lowered gently to the ground.

Din leaned back in his seat with a relieved sigh.

Grogu cooed.

“Yeah, of course you had fun,” He grumbled fondly and got up from his seat, “Come on. Let’s go see what the damage is this time.”

A bothan in white and orange thermal wear greeted them at the ramp, pointed ears twitching above the sandy fur of his head. 

Din didn’t like the looks of him. He liked it even less when the red-headed human crouched by the door several yards back turned around only to look at Din like he’d been caught in someone’s crosshairs, then shift his gaze to the kid with clear recognition.

Din didn’t like any of this one bit.

“Something wrong with your ship?” The bothan asked, drawing Din’s attention once again.

The Mandalorian shifted on his feet and did a quick scan of as much of the bay as he could see without turning his head. Two service droids in addition to the Bothan and human. They were likely safe for now. The Crest really did need to be looked at.

He nodded and jerked his head back toward his ship unnecessarily, “I’ve got some irregular power fluctuations. I need to know life support’s not going to shut off on me in the middle of hyperspace.”

The bothan looked past him at the crest skeptically, “You mean it hasn’t already?”

Grogu laughed from his spot by Din’s ankle.

“One sec,” The bothan glanced back at the red-head and shifted away from the pair toward the human, “Kestis!”

The red-head moved forward with a muffled, “Yeah, Boss?” while Din wondered why the name sounded familiar.

The bothan waved in Din’s general direction, “Deal with these two, will ya? I’ve gotta run this by Dez.”

“Kestis” nodded though he looked like he’d rather jump in a sarlacc pit. His shoulders stayed slightly hunched and he shifted his weight around as he drew closer and offered Din a gloved hand, “I’m Cal.”

Din reluctantly accepted and watched Cal’s eyes glaze over for the briefest of seconds. If he hadn’t already been on edge from repeated encounters with Gideon and the New Republic then he would have likely missed it. As such, he set it aside to examine later.

“Din.”

Cal nodded again and took a step back, “Nice to meet you. So, you’re having power issues? Can you tell me anything about when they happen?”

Din watched him as they went over what he knew about what was wrong with his ship and how it generally functioned under different conditions. Towards the end, the bothan came back out and motioned the red-head back to the door while casting a glance at Din and Grogu like  _ they _ were the ones being shifty here.

Din did his best to telegraph a glare through his visor. The lack of trust was entirely mutual.

Cal tugged his scarf down when he got closer, “What’d Dez say?”

Boss flapped a hand for him to lower his voice, “Yes, or no. Am I going to be fielding debt collectors for this guy?”

Cal furrowed his brow in consideration, “No, maybe bounty hunters and imperials, though.”

Boss shot him an alarmed look, “What? Why? What’d he do?”

Cal shook his head, “Not him. The kid.”

The bothan looked at said kid with incredulous curiosity that had a protective sort of wrath radiating off the Mandalorian like a dark cloud. 

Boss didn’t seem to notice Din’s discomfort and squinted up at Cal, “How do you know this stuff?”

Cal shrugged and they both said, “It’s just a feeling,” in amusement and exasperation respectively.

Boss sighed and waved the red-head off, “yeah, yeah. Go get your tools, kid.”

Cal straightened, “I’m on this one?”

“Yeah, just don’t electrocute yourself,” He grumbled, moving back toward the Mandalorian.

Cal tugged his scarf back up and trotted over to the door pad for the rest of his kit.

Din shifted on his feet, ready to scoop Grogu up and make a run for it when the bothan came back. 

“I can have it done for you in a few days, provided there aren’t any parts that need replaced,” The bothan said and stopped just out of arm’s reach, “Service takes a two hundred credit deposit. Up front.”

Din nodded and handed the money over, “There any places to stay around here?”

The bothan looked at him like he’d asked about water vaporators, “No.”

“There’s the Kyber Cave,” The red-head called from the broken doorway.

Din looked at him in askance but he only shrugged before adding, “It’s  _ cheap _ , anyway.”

Din left the maintenance bay with a sigh. He had a bad feeling about this.


	2. A Discussion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din asks for directions in an attempt to find more mandalorians. Cal, appears and gives cryptic answers even answering straight. Din, therefore, has more questions.  
> Din is also 60% sure Cal is part of a gang. Cal does absolutely nothing to dispute this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thing's will start to pick up after this chapter, promise.

Two disgruntled locals and one hour after leaving the hanger, Din had secured a room at the Kyper Cave.

The inn was in a comparatively short building on the opposite side of the city where a number of the round towers still had graffiti cursing the separatists, republic and Jedi alike, faded and cracked, though it was. 

The inn itself had several exterior lights missing and a fresh gold starbird emblazoned over faded aurebesh by the door. The innkeeper, a tall lasat with a scar running through one eye, didn’t say anything about “harvesting Din’s shiny shell” though and none of the occupants of the cantina that made up the bottom floor paid him any mind so he brushed his unease aside. 

That is until he spotted the red-head from the repair bay in a booth by the back door. He supposed it made sense that the mechanic would know about the place from staying here, but after the last few month the pair had had his concerns could hardly be called paranoia. 

Din scowled and glanced down at Grogu where he sat on the closest bar stool, “I don’t like this.”

Grogu tilted his head to the side and the Mandalorian picked him up.

With his back turned to the innkeeper as he advanced on the mechanic, Din never saw the Lasat reach under the counter. 

He _did_ see the red-head look up then past them and give a slight shake of his head. _That_ certainly didn't make him feel any better.

Din reached the table and shot a glare back at the bar but the innkeeper was just wiping down a glass. He really didn’t like this.

“Who’d you have repair your ship last?” Cal asked and tried not to flinch when the mandalorian turned back around. Even with the lack of paint, his visor was apparently enough to dredge up old memories, “The wiring looked like a kid got in and played with it.” 

He, of course, had seen exactly who had messed with the wires last but Din didn’t need to know that.

The kid stared at him.

The mandalorian shifted awkwardly before sitting down across from Cal, “Back at the hanger, you seemed to recognize me- or the armor, at least.”

Cal quirked an eyebrow but let the subject drop, “The visor is familiar. I don’t know any mandalorians, if that’s where you're going with this.”

Din slumped back in his seat, disappointment seeping off him.

The kid made a worried noise and Cal caught flashes of the Jedi temple, screams, then more mandalorians than Cal had ever seen coming to Din’s aid in a battle marked town that stank of sulfur. The Crest drifted through space alone.

_ “This is the way.” _

Cal pushed his plate away and scrubbed a hand over his face with a grimacing sigh, “I don’t know any Mandalorians,  _ but  _ I do know a part of town even spice traders won’t go in. It used to be a base for Republic forces during the Mandalorian wars but it’s been used by a number of groups over the millennia including Mandalorians.”

The kid pulled a hunk of bread off the plate without Din noticing.

The red-head watched him take a bite, spit it back out then reach for the broth the bread had come with.

Din shifted the plate away from the kid and flagged down a waiter for him.

The kid hummed, casting images of tasty frogs into the force.

Cal felt a muscle in his jaw twitch and sincerely hoped he wasn’t leading the man to his death, “The group that’s there now  _ might  _ be able to help you but they’re extremely defensive. You’d have to be very careful not to set them off.”

“Just tell me where to find them,” Din said calmly. Cal could sense Din’s impatience after so long trying to find others of his kind but he was keeping it under wraps, which was appreciated. Still, a bounty hunter wouldn't be received well.

A Lurman with brown fur and light patches around her eyes came over with a notepad before he could answer. 

Din watched the waitress take one look at him then shoot the red-head an incredulous look.

The red-head looked tired as he shrugged.

She shook her head and seemed to reorient herself before turning back to Din, “What can I get for you?”

“Do you have something with meat in it?” Din asked after a beat.

“Nerf strips?” the red-head suggested.

“That’ll work,” Din agreed. He remembered thinking they tasted like frogs the one time he’d had them. He personally hadn’t cared for it but Grogu might like them, “And could we get another order of broth for…” he gestured across the table.

The redhead shook his head, “It’s fine. I was done eating anyway.”

Grogu cooed and tilted his head to the side as the waitress went to get their orders.

The mechanic stood, fishing out the credits for his meal, “I’m going to head off. I should have your ship fixed by the time you get back.”

Din’s hand shot out to stop him without thinking, “Wait."

The red-head flinched hard, slipping into a ready stance as his own hand went for his hip before closing into a fist. He quickly forced himself to relax but any pretense that he’d been at ease was long gone.

“You didn’t say where the ruins were,” Din said, purposely leaning away to give the red-head space. It seemed to work, slightly. At least he didn't run.

He nodded, “North side of the city. You’ll want to head out early. It’s a half day’s walk and it gets dicey over there at night. They’re trying to hunt down a trafficking ring. Wouldn’t want you two to get caught in the crossfire.”

“You have anything more specific than that?” Din asked.

The red-head stepped further from the table, “They’ll find you.”

Din grimaced under his helmet but accepted that he wasn’t going to get a better answer in the middle of the inn’s cantina, “I also forgot your name.” He’d been more focused on the red-head’s strange behavior and by the time the bothan had said “go get your tools” he’d had other things to worry about.

The red-head nodded and held out his ungloved hand, “Cal Kestis.”

Din took it, wondering yet again where he’d heard that name before, “Din Djarin. I’ll be sure to remember this time.”

Cal smiled no hint of any additional recognition or the distress he’d shown at the hangar, “See you tomorrow, then.”

Din leaned back in his seat with an explosive sigh and looked down only to find Grogu staring back, “He’s definitely hiding something.”

Grogu blinked and went to try the bread again.

“Hey-” Din grabbed it from him as quickly as possible without ripping it from his grasp, “You’ve got food on the way. Quit making a mess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to ask questions   
> Thank you for reading :)


	3. The Rule of Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three things come in threes:  
> Misery, misfortune, and pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way longer than it needed to.  
> Each Easter egg is an hour long research binge. Sorry about that.

Cal tugged his left sleeve back into place as he went to clock into work. He was not looking forward to going back outside but the heater in his glove should take some of the edge off. Cold always went right to his bones on that side.

“Hey, got your batteries charged, kid?” Boss called from across the room. The bothan had an array of small parts on the table for inventory.

Cal nodded and adjusted his scarf to sit more snugly around his neck, “Got the spares too. Why?”

Boss shook his head, “Some of the guys said they saw some creeps poking around the inn you’re staying at. Be careful going home tonight.”

“I will. Thanks,” Cal replied and ducked out into the hangar with his tool bag. He needed to finish checking over the Crest’s power systems then he’d comm the Mantis to see how far out they were. 

Boss’s creeps were more than likely after Din and the kid, not Cal but it was better to be safe than sorry and he wasn’t about to let anyone get to them anyway. The sooner  _ all  _ of them left, the better. 

Cal’s fingers hovered over the keypad to the ship’s ramp and it hummed with the echoes of a man long past and the laughter of a child without a home. He looked toward the hangar door he’d been trying to fix for the better part of a week.

Its angled metal teeth made it look like jaws ready to snap shut.

Cal took a deep breath and punched in the code. Boss would be out later to warn him if anyone came in. 

It would be fine.

Din scowled at the street that looked exactly like the one they’d turned off of before then turned his glare at the endless grey that was the sky. The HUD in his helmet  _ said  _ they were going North but they were nearing the edge of the platform city and he had yet to see any signs of life- human or otherwise.

“Think Kestis sent us in the wrong direction on purpose?” 

Grogu looked up at him from the satchel on Din’s hip.

The Mandalorian sighed and peered over the edge of the platform. His scowl promptly returned full force.

About a foot down was what could have once been described as a bridge if the supports hadn’t collapsed. Now it was more of a dilapidated ramp to a similarly collapsed crystal building. The left half of the building was nearly a meter lower than the right and the main door was nearly completely hidden by shards of fallen balustrades from the roof.

“This is a bad idea,” Din said.

Grogu cooed.

Din activated his jet pack and touched down at the base of the collapsed bridge. One step later, he was shifting the kid behind him with one hand on his blaster after a bolt pinged off the ground by his foot.

His HUD, which had been green before started to light up with red shapes. He switched it back to normal and forced himself to leave his blaster in it’s holster. Every member of the twenty some beings watching him now was armed.

“Defensive,” He muttered, “Right.” He could definitely see several patches of the bright orange worn by Republic pilots too. 

Grogu cooed and the wine of a blaster rifle powering up behind him had him tensing even further.

“Reach for the sky,  _ Mando, _ ” a rough voice growled. 

Din moved his hands where the speaker could see them, “Okay.”

“Why are you here?” A second voice somewhere to his left, but still behind him asked. It was higher pitched and closer to the ground.

It was also familiar.

“I was hoping you might know where I could find more of my kind,” He replied honestly.

“Your kind?” The voice to his right rumbled.

“Enough,” the voice on the left admonished and the waitress from the Kyber Cave stepped into Din’s line of sight. Out in the sunlight, her sandy brown fur looked nearly grey, “Why did you bring a child here? Surely you were warned of how dangerous it is.”

Din nodded once, “Leaving him to come here alone would have been more of a risk.”

The Lurman woman studied him wearily for a moment before nodding herself.

Without a word every blaster trained on Din lowered.

“Come inside, then,” she said, “It would seem we have much to discuss.”

Cal nearly tripped over the guts of a bug-like protocol droid and wound up stumbling into the echo of a mother trying to convince Din to honor his agreement to get her and her eggs to Trask. Both adults were tired and recently unsettled by their crash.

_ Cal watched with a weary hopefulness that was not his own as the mandalorian pushed himself to his feet with a sigh. _

The vision faded and the red-head took a deep breath to re-center himself before continuing to the cockpit. Back on Bracca part of the reason he’d listened to music had been to both ground himself and provide an excuse for why he didn’t immediately answer someone when an echo was too strong for him to ignore. 

Music wouldn’t be the best idea here.

He dropped his tool bag in the copilot’s seat and ran the ship through the sequence that would allow him to check the systems without actually engaging the engines.

The consol flickered to life and a warning flashed about power drain.

Cal toggled a few more switches and found his hand hovering over a lever with a silver knob at the top without realizing it. The sphere sung with a range of emotions that had him reaching for it without thinking.

_ Din was at the controls doing-  _ something _. From his vantage point by the sphere, Cal couldn’t really see but the kid was  _ bored  _ and curious about this new being that was so different from everything he’d known before. The ship was also full of bright lights and shiny little things to get into the most important seemed to be this sphere. It was small and reminded him of the remotes he’d seen on Coruscant when he’d snuck away from his caretakers. _

_ Getting the sphere wasn’t nearly as difficult as getting the remote had been but Din caught him much faster than the young initiates had. _

_ “That’s not a toy,” The being grumbled. _

_ That line of thought didn’t last long. _

_ The scene shifted slightly and Din stared out the windscreen as the ship left atmo. The kid had snuck up to his side and was trying to reach the sphere. _

_ Cal sensed the mandalorian’s fond exasperation as he unscrewed the sphere from it’s place and dropped it into the kid’s hand. _

_ The scene shifted again and this time they were in the smoggy corpse of a forest. The kid sat on a small bolder with Din standing across from him.  _

_ Cal nearly had a heart attack when he recognized  _ Ahsoka Tano,  _ the apprentice of  _ Anikan  _ freaking  _ Skywalker, _casually_ _ leaning on a stone nearby.  _ He’d had no idea she was still alive- but then, she’d left the order before the purge so maybe she hadn’t been close to any troopers when it started. This echo felt recent. She could _ still _ be alive.

_ Din held up the sphere, “Grogu, you want this?” _

Cal smiled at the mandalorian’s elation and pride at the kid succeeding then felt his heart twist in alarm along with Din’s when Ahsoka refused to train him.

_ The scene shifted one final time. _

_ Grogu had just dropped the sphere in a flash of frustration that echoed his guardian’s. _

_ Din froze, misinterpreting it as fear and tried to explain himself. He ultimately gave up, gently putting the sphere back in Grogu’s hand with a sigh, “You’re… Very special, kid. We’re going to find the place you belong and they’re going to take good care of you.” _

_ Grogu stared with an aching heart as the mandalorian turned back around. Din was  _ sad _. _

_ “We’re going to get you to Tython,” Din continued, unaware of his charge’s turmoil. _

The vision faded around the mandalorian trying to remind himself that the mission was necessary and Grogu belonged with his own kind.

“You with me kid?”

Cal flinched and screwed his eyes shut in an effort to steel his nerves. He took a deep shaky breath and let it out slowly before looking over his shoulder at the Boss’s worried face, “Yeah. I’m okay.”

The bothan shifted on his feet, remaining unconvinced but backed off, “Okay. I gotta order a part real quick. I’ll be a couple of minutes. Think you can last that long without losing a limb?”

Cal let out a quiet snort and nodded, “I’ll be  _ fine,  _ Boss.”

“ _ Okay _ , okay,” The bothan grumbled, actually taking several steps back with raised hands, “It just leaves me with a bad feeling. You attract trouble like flies to an eopie.”

“I’m just lucky, I guess,” The redhead shrugged.

This time it was the bothan’s turn to scoff as he retreated back into the ship, “Holler if anything goes wrong.”

“See you in five minutes,” Cal called, turning back to the controls.

Wise, though they may have been, the Jedi council had been far from infallible. In their fear of loss leading to falling, the Order denied their students the very connections that would keep them  _ from  _ falling. They shied away from fear and anger without really asking why it was there so even trained masters didn't know what to do when they couldn't just release it into the force. Taron Malicos had been living proof of that.

Cal turned back to the controls with a new resolve. He’d talk to Din later. In the meantime, there was a ship that needed fixing.

Din eyed the dimly lit cantina wearily while Grogu ate. 

According to the locals, the only other mandalorians to pass through in the last ten years had been some of Bo Katan’s party a few months back. Apparently they hadn’t stuck around but they had given the locals a comm frequency and a few places to look for them should the situation on Mygeeto deteriorate further.

He hadn’t been holding out much hope for Mygeeto anyway. It wasn’t exactly close to Mandalore and harassing imperial forces was kind of hard to do when there weren’t any within range.

He  _ had  _ managed to find out why Kestis seemed to have a small following of mother hens though. Apparently the red-head had been trying to help clear out the traffickers on the north side of the city for the better part of two months and it had landed him in a tight spot once or twice. The Lurman's grave expression left the impression that the explanation had been a gross understatement but refused to say more beyond the red-head saving her hide.

Din was mostly just glad he hadn’t landed them in a metaphorical venom-mite nest.

The second the thought entered his head his gaze locked on a human bounty hunter with a wicked scar over one eye, armed to the teeth.

The hunter grinned and stood slowly before leaving.

Din quickly dug credits for the meal out of his pocket and grabbed Grogu to follow.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Cal hopped down the ladder to the cockpit with his tool bag in hand and strode back to the cargo hold. All the tests he could manage from the cockpit pointed toward the problem being in the landing gear.

In his pursuit of answers, he missed a box near the open side ramp and went to catch himself on a crate by his waist. 

The contact had him stumbling in double as the echo in the crate washed over his senses.

_ “Hurry up. We’ve gotta get the tracker installed before Mando comes back for the kid.” _

Cal blinked. Oh, that would do it. Long ranged trackers notoriously drew a lot of power.

_ The mechanic who’d tripped on the same box shuffled back to his feet with an annoyed grumble. _

Cal never got the chance.

His head snapped to the side and he dropped in an ungainly heap on the floor. 

A dark shape loomed over him but everything was already going fuzzy.

Another figure rumbled something he couldn’t make out and the shape moved off toward the ladder as Cal slipped from consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to actually write out the conversation between the kind of underground resistance-ish network-y people and I was going to throw in bits about how a few of the Plasma Devils escaped Vader's hunt for them by joining it but then my lovely brain, monarch of miscellaneous research, went: No! Must fight now, so... |/*-*)/
> 
> Thank's for reading!  
> Questions, comments, and concerns are always welcome


	4. A lesson in Hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din tails the bounty hunter from the Cantina back to the repair hangar. Things go about as well as expected.  
> Dez would very much like people to stop trying to kill her mechanics.
> 
> WARNING: This chapter contains blood(because head injuries bleed a lot) and minor character death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. I got distracted... repeatedly.

Din stalked through the crowded streets outside the cantina, ignoring the various beings that fled his path. Ahead, the bounty hunter glanced back with a smirk.

The mandalorian quickened his pace.

Grogu let out a confused coo from his side.

They were getting close to the repair bay.

The hunter disappeared and Din surged forward. This whole thing stank of a trap but there was not a chance he was going to let Kestis become collateral damage.

Din drew his blaster as he cleared the broken overhead door and scanned the bay. He pushed the bag with Grogu further behind him to keep him clear of any potential fire.

As he did, the sound from the street fell away inside the empty hangar as if the place was holding its breath.

He couldn’t see any bodies from where he was by the exit but he couldn’t shake that something had happened. The hangar was too quiet, too still.

Where was everyone?

If the bounty hunter had come through here- Hell, even if he had friends, they wouldn’t have had time for clean up.

The Crest’s side ramp was down. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Din muttered and stepped away from the wall.

Grogu let out a quiet coo and hunkered down further in his sling.

No one jumped out at him as he drew level with the top of the ramp which did nothing to ease his nerves. When he looked down towards the floor of the ship his heart plummeted.

He quickly hopped up onto the ramp and swept his blaster toward the back of the hull. 

The cargo hold was just as empty as the hangar with one exception.

Din pulled Grogu from his bag and set him on the floor with a quick sign for him to hide. He then shifted closer to the crumple form on the floor.

Cal Kestis’ hair was dark with blood that had started to pool in the grooves that marked the edge of the cargo hold. His body had fallen face down in a twisted sprawl between two crates and clearly been left there for Din to find. As it was, he had to remove one of his gloves to check the mechanic’s pulse because the position made it impossible to tell if he was breathing.

Kestis flinched at the contact and scowled before squinting up at him.

Din let out a relieved sigh and rocked back on his heels, “You with me?”

The red-head blinked sluggishly up at Din then his eyes slid past and he was lurching forward.

Din grabbed his shoulder to keep him from faceplanting.

A body hit the wall by the ladder with a sickening crack and thud.

Din whipped around, blaster raised, only to find Grogu staring at a corpse from exactly where he’d been set.

The kid turned around at the new noise and tilted his head to the side, “Beh?”

Din tightened his grip on his blaster and jerked his head toward the mechanic.

Cal groaned and shuffled around so he was leaning on one of the crates as Grogu toddled over.

Din glanced over his shoulder and shuffled closer, “Okay,” He said quietly, “I’m going to clear the rest of the ship. You watch him.” He looked at Cal but he may as well have been talking to Grogu.

The mechanic barely seemed able to focus on the mandalorian's face let alone listen.

Grogu watched Din with rapt attention, “Beweh.” 

The imitation of the pit droids from Tatooine had been funny once, but now was not the time.

The mandalorian bit back half a dozen curses and turned to the kid, “Stay with him. Anyone comes down, you hide. Got it?”

Grogu cooed and reached toward him. 

Din picked the kid up with a muttered, “Dank farrik,” and pushed him into Kestis’ arms.

The red-head shifted to accommodate the bundle with a dazed expression.

“Keep him safe,” The mandalorian ordered and stood. Leaving him was a terrible idea, but he wasn’t about to drag the kid up into the cockpit with him if there were more hunters waiting.

Din climbed the ladder as quickly as possible.

The second his head was level with the upper deck, he got a boot to the visor.

His helmet rebounded off the flooring behind him. 

The hunter above him reared back for another kick

Din shot him and climbed the rest of the way up as the body dropped.

The sound drew another from the back of the upper deck. Because of course there was more than kriffing one. 

The nikto took a swing at him with a yell. 

Din ducked under it and elbowed him in the chest as the weight of his attack carried him forward.

The hunter smacked face first into the door frame for the cockpit and landed in a crumpled heap on top of his partner.

Din kicked him in the shin before checking the other room quickly. 

He was just getting ready to tie the last hunter up when blaster fire rang out below and someone screamed.

Boss had been doing paperwork at his desk, something he’d done a million times before without any complications or major injuries before.

Before last month, that is, when a client had been bad news and brought their problems back to the shop. Cal had eyed him funny the whole time he was there and then made sure the yard was empty the next day when he did the ship. The fallout when the guy’s buddies had shown up hadn’t been pretty.

They’d implemented a buddy system specifically because of it.

The shop wasn’t completely clear this time. Dez and one of the boys were in the back stockroom doing inventory but he was Cal’s designated buddy for the day.

So, when Boss heard a single blaster shot the first thought that had crossed his mind had naturally been, “Mother of Kwath, not again,” as he ran out the door with the blaster rifle kept under his desk.

He arrived outside at the same time the last bounty hunter decided he was fed up with waiting for his friends and charged the side of the ship with his own blaster blazing.

Boss lifted the rifle to his shoulder and wound up lowering it again when the hunter went flying right back out of the ship with a surprised shriek. The bothan put a bolt in him the second he stopped rolling.

Cal staggered to the top of the ramp with what had to be a lightsaber in his hand. That wasn't Boss' main focus, though.

There was blood freezing in Cal's hair and more covered almost half his face.

The redhead swayed into the doorframe then slid down it.

The bothan started running before the lightsaber slipped through Cal’s fingers and rolled down the ramp with a dull clatter.

He thumbed his wrist comm and yelled despite holding it next to his face, “Dezzy, get the kit!”

Din dropped into the lower level of his ship with his heart in his throat and stalked back to where he’d left Grogu. 

He found him clinging to the back of Kestis’ coat.

Grogu looked up when he got close and let go with a loud, “Beweh”

Din swept in and grabbed him, quickly backing away from where a man with a gold stripe across his nose and greying dreads shoved under a knit hat was setting a med pack down by Kestis’ knee.

Din held Grogu slightly away from himself to inspect him for injuries but found none, “Are you hurt?”

Grogu blinked at him, "Beweh." 

Din hoped that meant he was fine and inched his way around the first aid project.

The bothan was talking to a lurman woman with grey fur and dark patches over her eyes.

The two stopped talking when he drew near and the woman glared at him with a surprising amount of steel considering she was only three feet tall.

She promptly raised herself to her full height, “I hope you have a _very_ good explanation for why _bounty hunters_ are coming after one of my boys,” She snarled.

The bothan inched away from her with a nervous glint in his eye.

Din took a half step back and angled the kid away from the angry shop owner, “They want him,” he nodded down at Grogu without bringing him any closer.

The shop owner’s gaze dropped to the kid and some of the rage subsided before her finger snapped back up and she jabbed it at Din’s chest, “ _Be_ that as it may, _next_ time you pull into a port for repairs, _say_ something. You put my workers at risk.”

“Dez,” the bothan interjected.

She held up a hand, “Don’t. You’re in trouble too. _Both_ of you. The buddy system is in place for a _reason_.”

The bothan ducked his head, “Yes, ma’am.”

Dez turned back to Din, “As for _you_ , I want the bodies off that ship and you gone in the next ten minutes. New Republic investigators will be here in thirty.”

Din blinked in shock- not that either of them could see it.

The Lurman stared at him pointedly, “ _Go!”_

The Mandalorian spun on his heel and half jogged back into his ship.

“Quin, help him once you've got Cal back inside.” 

In the end, it only took five to clear the Crest of bounty hunters and get her back in the air.

Din didn’t relax until they left atmo and even then, something felt off.

“Beh?” Grogu tilted his head to the side from his seat.

Din shook his head, “I don’t know. Just a feeling.” 

The kid let out a rumbling pur as Din punched in the coordinates for Tython reluctantly and made the jump to hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you get mad, I’d just like you to know that were Cal awake when Din came back, he would’ve been in fight or flight mode and; therefore, would have chucked Din across the ship which wouldn’t have been good for anyone’s sanity considering Din thinks Grogu threw the guy from before
> 
> Also, Cal did not ignite his saber because laser sword+ tight space+concussion= unintentionally severed limbs and he promised to keep those in tact. The hilt is still a 2 foot long durasteel pipe, though.


	5. Tangled Roots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Din and Grogu on Tython, the crew of the Mantis race to catch up before it's too late while the Empire looms ever closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the tardiness, I got distracted. Also fight scenes are hard.

Cal’s head felt like he'd gone several rounds with a Jotaz and lost. Opening his eyes sent blinding shards of light shooting through his skull despite the dimness of the room. He immediately went to cover them with a groan, barely registering the being next to his bed as he wished he was still unconscious.

“If you go back to sleep, you'll miss your friends arrival, padawan,” a voice said from somewhere in the room. It was too deep to be Cere or Dez but too light to be Master Tapal, Greeze or Boss.

Something in his brain whispered that he should be more worried about this than he was.

The voice chuckled.

Cal squinted in their general direction and found Quin grinning down at him with  _ way _ too much glee. After a second his brain managed to latch on to exactly one word of what the man had said, “Not a padawan.”

If possible, the man's grin widened, “I'm aware.”

Cal scowled and tried to parse out why Quin would be waiting for him to wake up. Despite being relatively amicable and having an uncanny nose for finding trouble, the guy wasn't exactly a people person.

Quin snorted as if he'd spoken, “ _ You’re _ one to be pointing fingers.”

Cal scowled harder. He had  _ not  _ said that out loud. “You're a Jedi.” Were his head hurting a little less and he a little more awake, he might've been excited- or alarmed, given his history. As it was, he didn't appreciate being made fun of with his more recent memories all fuzzy.

Quin quirked an eyebrow but didn't dispute his claim, “And you're projecting. Although, your shielding is actually pretty impressive- when you're not drugged and concussed. I wouldn't have known you were force sensitive at  _ all  _ if we hadn't seen you chuck that bounty hunter across the shop.”

Cal’s heart skipped a beat. He'd done  _ what _ now? It wasn't important. The hunter had been after the kid. 

“Din?”

“The Mandalorian? Left a few hours ago,” Quin shrugged.

Cal stared at him uncomprehending then lurched up and wound up flailing against the arm Quin threw over his chest, “I didn't disable it.”

Quin successfully shoved him back down with a furrowed brow, “What?”

“The tracker. I didn't disable the  _ tracker _ !” Cal said urgently.

To his credit, Quin only looked confused for a second before he was on his feet and headed for the door, “Stay there. I'll get Dez to com them.”

Cal rolled into a sitting position as the older Jedi hurried from the room but made no move to follow.

As much as he wanted to know they were safe, his equilibrium wasn't quite back to normal yet. It wouldn't help Din and Grogu if the others had to stop and scrape him off the floor.

When Din had handed him Grogu, the kid had been worried Cal was going to take him away.

He'd hopped right out of the Jedi’s arms the second the mandalorian’s back was turned. 

Cal had tried to reassure him that that wasn't going to happen but then the last bounty hunter had shown up and things gone hazy after that. 

He hoped they were okay. They shouldn't be separated.

Gideon stood at the center front of the bridge as he quietly observed the whirling colors of distant nebulae and dying stars. The inner core was much more active than a lot of the space he usually traveled through. Hyperspace calculations were notoriously difficult to make here. A lot of the pilots that came here compensated for this by making short jumps and adjusting them as needed. It was tedious and there was little room for error so most pilots avoided the inner core all together.

But then, Din Djarin was not most pilots.

“Sir, Picking up the beacon,” One of his officers called, “There's a lot of interference.”

Gideon turned away from his musings, “Can you get a location?” 

Soniee cast him a glance that gave away her concern, “They're near the Tython system. Interference is making it difficult to narrow down.”

Gideon watched her just long enough to make her shift in her seat before turning back to the front, “Make the jump.”

He had a feeling that she would be a problem later. Despite the Mandalorian Academy's obedience, a number of the students had sided with the Jedi in the past. 

He made a mental note to keep them separated as the view gave way to the light blues of hyperspace.

Cal shuffled impatiently by the office door as he, Quin, Dezzy, and Boss waited for the Mantis to land. Din had left nearly two hours ago.

They had yet to make contact with the Razor Crest. 

Quin put a hand on his shoulder to stop his twitching, “Calm down. Tython is more than two day’s journey. We’ll get there.”

Cal nodded and watched the stabilizer vents begin to close again, “I know, but it feels like we’re already too late.”

The Mantis settled on its landing gear as the office door slid open and Dez stepped out onto the shop floor.

Quin followed while Boss hung back with a hand on Cal’s arm to keep him back too.

Both watched Quin introduce himself to a weary Cere and Merrin before walking toward the ramp themselves.

“Got your batteries charged, kid?” 

Cal looked down at the bothan with an eyebrow raised, “Yeah, spares too. Why?”

Boss shook his head, keeping his gaze on the ship, “Just-” He frowned and looked up at the redhead with tense worry in every line of his face, “Be careful, alright?”

Cal nodded with a somber smile, “I’ll add it to the plan.”

The bothan huffed and stopped at the bottom of the ramp. His fingers brushed absently over his hip, “Oh, here. Might wanna hang onto this.”

Cal’s heart skipped a beat and he forgot how to breathe for a second as he accepted his lightsaber from the bothan with a strangled, “Thanks.”

Boss hummed, “Don’t lose it.”

Cal clipped the saber back on his belt, glad it wasn’t behind a crate somewhere on the Razor Crest like he’d initially believed, “I won’t.” He smiled at the bothan, “Thanks, Boss. Stay safe.”

The bothan gave him a fond smile, still tinged with apprehension, “May the force be with you.”

Din stood on the edge of the stone circle with Grogu in his arms. It had taken the better part of an hour to get up to the structure on foot. 

The “seeing stone” sat innocently in the center, playing the part of an average weathered sphere one could find in  _ any _ stone circle one  _ any  _ deserted planet hidden behind shattered hyperspace lanes.

He didn’t like the look of it one bit. And his apprehension had nothing to do with the fact that setting Grogu on that stone would allegedly draw a Jedi to them.

“Beh?”

Din glanced down at the kid and sighed. He was sworn by creed to get the kid home but it didn’t make it any easier, “It’s nothing. Just…” He shook his head and stepped into the circle.

He didn’t know what he was expecting to happen.

The wind blew between the leaning pillars the same as it had been since they arrived. Nothing moved.

“Just feelings,” The mandalorian said quietly and hoped the kid didn’t pick up on the sour note in his voice.

Grogu hummed and turned toward the stone.

Din gently put him on top of it before taking a step back.

The kid tilted his head to the side and looked up at him, “Beweh.”

“Now what?”

Din was saved from the awkward stand off of sorts by the sound of a ship entering the atmosphere, “That was fast.”

He turned with a hand on his blaster and watched the egg-shaped tail of a Firespray-class patrol craft fly by. 

It was too fast.

“Okay, time to go.” He spun on his heel and made a grab for the kid as blue wisps of light started to rise from the stone.

The light bent under his fingertips and then he was flying back across the circle to land on the edge of the platform in an ungraceful heap.

Din groaned and rolled up to his knees. He scanned the skies in anticipation of a fight.

The ship was nowhere in view.

He glanced back at the kid, still wrapped in light, and drew his blaster, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

The light burned higher.

Din hoped it would be enough to keep Grogu safe if anyone got past him and started down the hill.

“Remind me again why we're risking violently being ripped apart by dying stars to go do maintenance on a guy's ship?” Greeze asked.

They were already in hyperspace well into their fourth jump.

“If you're nervous, I could fly,” Quinlan offered in a light tone.

The Knight sent Cal a wink across the holotable.

Cal grinned back and Merrin let out a quiet huff of laughter from her usual seat on the couch.

“Oh,  _ I  _ can fly,” Greeze said, “That is not the issue here. What  _ is _ a problem is that we've got a limited amount of fuel the Mantis can hold and this kind of stop starting burns a _ lot _ of it.”

“We'll be fine,” Cere said firmly.

“Just don't go blaming me if we run out of fuel on our way back,” The Letero replied, “At this rate, we might have to stop on Coruscant if it gets too close.”

The mood died immediately.

Cal caught Merrin’s eye as she looked around at them in confusion and shook his head.

While they had spent the last nineteen years fighting the Empire together, they had avoided any conflict in the Empire’s heart. 

BD-1 beeped a question about Tython’s local fauna and their potential to eat Greeze.

Cere snorted.

“Haha, very funny,” The Letero grumbled.

Cal sent the droid a small smile, “Don’t count on it, buddy.”

“Byss isn’t too far from Tython,” Quinlan added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Palpatine stationed troops on it in case any Jedi showed up looking for the old order like they did on Ilum.”

Din turned as a bolt pinged off his armor, leaving the closer troopers to Shand and Fett.

Everywhere he looked more of the imps kept crawling out of the rocks.

He’d long since lost track of where he’d set his jet pack in the chaos.

Fett was, of course, missing all the action.

At least it looked like they were leaving the seeing stone be for now.

“We should move,” Shand yelled over the constant ring of blaster fire.

A couple of the troupers broke off and darted around a corner.

He glanced further along the path they might’ve gone and felt his heart skip a beat.

“The kid,” Din shifted to block a bolt that would’ve hit her in the shoulder, “Up the hill!”

He didn’t look back as he ran for the closest gap in the rocks. 

Gideon smiled as the ship came out of hyperspace and moved into the upper layers of the planet’s atmosphere, “Activate the dark troopers.”

They would be ready by the time the ship was at a survivable altitude for the child.

Aboard the Razor Crest the dash beeped with an incoming message.

Din stumbled back behind cover as a volley of shots zipped past his face.

They cut off with a shriek and the crunch of shattered plastoid.

Din inched to the side.

A single bolt flew past his head and a body dropped beside him.

Fett stalked forward in full armor, blaster drawn, “Go!”

Din sprinted past him as four dark shapes broke through the clouds overhead.

Grogu distantly heard his caretaker calling out to him over the rippling waves of the force that surrounded him. He tried to will it away but the current, at first a steady stream, turned into a raging inferno of energy that climbed ever higher.

The force wasn’t  _ listening  _ to him. 

The man he looked to as a father disappeared behind burning blue and he screamed.

Grogu cried for a being that wasn’t there anymore.

Cal winced as an overwhelming sense of fear and grief _sang_ through the force. 

Quinlan wore a grave expression that said he’d felt it too.

Cal got to his feet and went into the cockpit, “Greeze, how far out are we?”

“Another hour, why?”

"Something's wrong," Cere said, "I felt..."

Cal could hear the unnerved frown in her voice without turning around to look.

"Fear," Merrin finished for her, "Fear and pain."

His hands tightened on the Captain and Copilot's chairs as he glanced back at the others with dread.

“We're too late."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, while doing research, I found out there were some Jedi who went to Ilum hoping the Empire wouldn't know where it was.  
> Thanks for reading :)

**Author's Note:**

> I am very aware that Mygeeto has designated landing platforms but having had to work outside in winter, I have elected to ignore them.  
> Also, I forgot they were on Mygeeto for a second and got attached to the landing sequence.   
> Grogu and BD-1 are going to have so much fun when things calm down a little. Their respective adults should be very concerned.  
> Thanks for reading :)


End file.
